


Fever Dream

by One_Chicago_Fanfiction



Category: Chicago Med, Chicago PD
Genre: Disaster Adam, Jay gets the flu, M/M, Nightmares, Will is worried, adam is worried
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:55:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24116869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/One_Chicago_Fanfiction/pseuds/One_Chicago_Fanfiction
Summary: When Jay's needle phobia prevents him from getting the flu shot, Jay comes down with the flu. The nightmares he has during this time are enough to worry Adam, who calls in Will for some advice.
Relationships: Jay Halstead/Adam Ruzek
Comments: 8
Kudos: 88





	Fever Dream

The nightmare was gone the moment Jay jerked awake. His heart pounded, his skin was slick with sweat, and most of all he could feel the remnants of terror, its sickly aftertaste racking through his mind, the press of tears against his eyes for a memory that wasn’t even there. It was bad, and it was gone.

“Woah,” came a voice beside him, and he jumped at the touch of Adam Ruzek’s hand on his shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s me, baby, it’s me. You okay? Jay?”

“Yeah,” Jay breathed, and he wrapped his arms around himself. “Just…bad dream. And I’m—cold.”

“Cold?” Adam said. “Jay, you’re dripping with sweat.” Jay cast Adam a glance in the half light and clenched his jaw to stop his teeth from chattering, pulled his knees up to his chest.

“Cold,” he confirmed, and Adam pressed the back of his hand against Jay’s forehead. The warmth of Adam’s touch sent shivers through Jay.

“Woah, okay,” said Adam, shifting in the bed, pulling himself more upright. “That’s a fever.”

“No, man,” Jay said, waving a hand away, fatigue rolling through him as his head swam, Adam’s voice barely an echo. “I’m fine. I just…bad dream.”

“Jay?” Adam said, but whatever Adam said, Jay didn’t hear the rest of it. He let his eyes slip shut and gave into the fatigue. 

The second nightmare stayed with him when he woke. It was more of a feeling than anything else. It wasn’t Afghanistan, but it was Jay as a soldier with a gun in his hands. And it was a threat. Kill these civilians or we kill your brother. A stranger with a gun to Will’s head. He woke up choking out sobs in the middle of the day, Adam on his knees at the bedside. 

“I got you,” Adam was saying, one hand in Jay’s hair. “You’re safe, Jay. It was just a nightmare.” Jay couldn’t remember which of them had reached out first, but his hand was tight around Adam’s. “You’re alright. Will’s alright too.”

“Will?” Jay asked, and even before Adam answered the memory of the nightmare struck him, turned him cold and nauseous. 

“Yeah,” Adam said, looking at Jay a little too closely. “You were yelling for him. You wanna talk about it? The nightmare?”

Jay pulled himself up in the bed, arms shaking with the weight of him, and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“No,” he said. 

“Okay, then,” Adam said, then pressed a glass of water into one hand and a pair of pills into the other. “Do me a favour and take these. Gotta keep you hydrated, too.”

“I’m fine,” Jay said. “Don’t need ‘em.”

“Well, maybe it’ll stop the nightmares,” Adam said, and Jay glanced at him, then looked away fast. Adam sighed. “Do it for me, then. You don’t take those pills I’m gonna sit here all day and talk to you about—I don’t know—stuff I like that you don’t.” Jay looked at Adam with his worried eyes and humourless half smile, and with a roll of his eyes he took the pills. Adam pressed a kiss to Jay’s forehead and rose to his feet.

“Thank you,” he said. “Drink the water. I’m gonna grab you something to eat. We got, like, bread. Cheese, maybe. It’ll do for now, huh?” He almost let Adam leave the room before he said it.

“They were gonna kill my brother,” Jay said, and Adam paused in the doorway, looked over at him with furrowed brow and a concern that Jay could barely stand. “That was the dream. The nightmare—whatever.”

Adam waited a long time before he spoke, and when he did, seconds before he slipped into the hall in search of food, he simply said, “It’ll be okay, Jay. I love you.”

The next time Jay woke up, the bedroom was darker once again, the sheets were damp with sweat, and the figure by the bed wasn’t Adam. 

“Will?” Jay asked, not entirely sure if he was awake or not. 

“It’s me,” his brother said. “Adam called me. Came to check on you. How you feeling, kiddo?”

Kiddo. It had been a long time since Will had called Jay that. Jay smiled, and even that was exhausting. 

“Tired,” he said. “Cold, but I’m sweating through the sheets.”

“Yep,” said Will. “You got a fever. Looks like the flu, actually. Did you get your shot?”

“Nope,” Jay admitted, and Will sighed. 

“Come on, Jay,” he said. “I offered to do it myself. When you said no, I assumed you got it somewhere else.”

“Needles, man,” Jay said, shivering as he spoke. 

“Mhm,” Will said, sounding entirely unimpressed, and looking at Jay with the same worry Adam had earlier. “I’m gonna stick around for a while, okay? Have a drink with Adam, watch a movie with you guys if you want. Got it set up in the living room.”

“No, man,” Jay said. “I’m good here. Stay though, whatever. Adam thinks you’re okay.”

“Just okay,” Will smiled. “High praise.” Jay gave a breathy laugh and Will’s expression slipped into something more serious. 

“He, uhm,” Will started, cleared his throat. “He says you’re having nightmares?”

“Stop worrying,” Jay said, acutely aware of the fatigue weighing down his voice. He was tired from this conversation alone, tired right down to his bones. When Will’s expression didn’t change, Jay sighed, shifted slightly in the bed. “It happens. It’s the, uh, the—“

“The flu you never got the shot for,” Will said. “I’m gonna get to know your boyfriend better. You’re gonna get some sleep. And Jay?”

“Yeah?” Jay said, already pulling the duvet back up to his shoulders, settling back down against the pillows. 

“Next flu season?” Will said from the doorway. “I’m giving you that shot whether you like it or not. I’ll steal your handcuffs and chain you to the ED if I have to. Got it?”

“Mm,” Jay said, eyes already closed, already slipping into a warm and dreamless sleep.


End file.
